Police Officers
Dear Editor: I would like to take a moment to recognize the two Sitka Police Department officers placed in a difficult position when they were called to patrol the Shee Atika Incorporated Annual Meeting last Saturday. They were called under the pretense that some shareholders who oppose the board of directors and its officers might get violent during the meeting. This alleged threat was based on comments supposedly found among posts on our shareholder Facebook group. Well, we searched high and low for such incendiary comments and found nothing even close to threatening.
In spite of the delicate position they were placed in, these officers handled themselves with as much grace as possible, and did not assent to act as a de facto security force for the corporation.
We would also like to thank those officials who, when contacted by shareholders, promptly realized that the posting of these officers was an egregious waste of city resources, which are already thinly stretched.
The poise of the officers and responsiveness of the department and city officials helped to relieve the concern over why the officers were called to be there at all, and we thank those who had the wisdom to recognize this.
Ted A. Wright,
Concerned Shareholder
Community Hospital
Dear Editor: Alan and I have spent over half a century using the ER and hospital and the doctors and staff at the Mountainside Clinic. We have always found all the doctors and staff to be excellent. We are in strong support of the Sitka Community Hospital and feel selling the business and/or the infrastructure to be a serious mistake that will hurt the community for years to come, and perhaps we will never have a community hospital again. It seems wrong that seven Assembly members and the Sitka Community Hospital board members have the ability to do such damage to our community.
Does it make sense to have so many lose their jobs, well trained employees. That is the last thing that the economy needs right now.
We are requesting the Assembly and hospital board take action to move forward to make the hospital viable. Hire an OB doctor and staff, hire a surgeon (preferably Dr. Wein) but at least move forward and hire the doctors and staff that will bring additional services and funds to the hospital.
The hospital board appears to be doing the very things that will make the hospital fail.
We are asking the Sitkans that support the Sitka Community Hospital to make it known that Sitkans will initial a recall petition for any Assembly members that vote to sell the hospital rather than try and work out a solution. There should be a resignation requested from any hospital board members to who act to shut the hospital down instead of working a solution to keep the hospital.
We don’t understand why someone would serve on the board and not move forward with a plan for success.
Alan’s dad, Jim Davis, served on the original hospital board, in the ’50s when the decision was made to build the original building. Alan’s mother, Louise Davis, worked as a nurse in the original building for many years. ln 1983 the new hospital building was completed and was celebrated by all Sitkans. All that work and money and pride for a Sitka Community Hospital will be lost with a sale.
Alan and I have lived in Sitka for over 55 years. My father, Ned Blatchley, passed at the original Sitka Community Hospital, our daughter was born in the current one, my mother, Betty Blatchley Caldwell, passed there also.
How many other Sitkans have a family history with the Sitka Community Hospital? I would guess most Sitkans. The Sitka Community Hospital is the heart of Sitka in so many ways.
Alan Davis and
Nancy Blatchley Davis, Sitka
Girls on the Run
Dear Editor: Sitkans Against Family Violence would like to thank everyone who supported the ninth season of Girls on the Run this year. Thanks to the community’s support, our 2017 season, which reached about 23 girls in Sitka, was a great success!
The season would not have been possible without our wonderful community partners. A special thank you to Sitka School District’s 21st Century Learning Program at Keet Gooshi Heen, “GLO,” their staff, and the school staff at Keet. Thank you also to our sponsors Sitka Rose Gallery, Precision Boatworks, Work and Rugged Gear Store, Whites Inc., Ludvig’s Bistro, Sitka Vision Clinic, Horan & Co., ALPS Federal Credit Union, Hames Corporation, and the Daily Sitka Sentinel. Many of our participants receive scholarships to be a part of Girls on the Run, and we are very grateful for the organizations and individuals who help support this positive program for Sitka youths. We would also like to thank our fantastic coaches who volunteered their time to support this program: Sue Conrad, Brittany Richardson, Grace Heidel, Tina Bachmeier, Lauren Kenny, Meredith Redick and Amanda Capitummino.
The recent 5K Community Fun Run on May 13th was the final celebratory event for our amazing participants, girls in third-fifth grade who have been learning healthy social/ emotional and other life skills, celebrating inner strength, and training for the 5K over the past 12 weeks. We had many family members, friends, and community members come out to cheer them on and help them each achieve their 5K goal! It would not have been possible without the work of all the wonderful volunteers who helped with course set-up, added to the celebration through activities like face painting, ran as personal supporters with the participants, and were great cheerleaders! Thank you to everyone who contributed time and energy to make this event such a success. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Again, thank you to everyone who helped bring such joy and celebration to the community of Sitka through Girls on the Run and the 5K.
Lauren Havens,
School Program Coordinator, SAFV
Distraction-Free
Dear Editor: Things can change for the better. A year ago today Sitka’s new Safe Street ordinance took effect and the dangerous practice of driving while using a hand held cell phone was prohibited. We still have some drivers texting and talking on a cell phone while cruising down our public streets, but it happens less frequently than it used too. For the past three years, the hospital has done observational survey counts of motorists on HPR that highlight this positive trend. In 2015, 21 percent of drivers had one hand on the wheel and one hand on something else, usually a phone. By 2016 that number dropped to 10 percent, and this year it was just 7 percent.
The Assembly members who voted to enact this sensible public health policy deserve our big thank you as do the majority of the motorists who are driving phone and distraction-free.
Thanks and have a great weekend,
Doug Osborne, Sitka
SCH Petitions
Dear Editor: The petitions for a stand- alone Sitka Community Hospital and reinstatement of Dr. Wein will continue until the promised town hall meeting at the end of summer. They are located at Tongass Threads downtown; 405 Verstovia Ave. (Mary, 623-8374); and 224 Katlian (Karen, 747-8703) all summer long, but don’t delay.
Lois Rhodes, Sitka
